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As it turns out 2010 was a 3 out of 10 so I'm starting the year shooting low and posting some favourite vinyl. What a nerd...
Queens of the Stone Age-Era Vulgaris, 3x10 inch black vinyl.
Haggatha, etched track listing, black vinyl.
Thee Oh Sees-Help, bubblegum pink vinyl.
Parenthetical Girls-Entanglements, white vinyl.
Baroness-Blue Album, 2x yellow & blue splatter vinyl.
Thee Oh Sees-The Master's Bedroom..., purple vinyl.
Radio Berlin-Glass, clear vinyl.
Dungen-Skit I Allt, pink vinyl.
The Fall-The Real New Fall L.P., light blue vinyl.
Kylesa-Spiral Shadow, 2x purple vinyl.
Stereolab-Dots and Loops, 2x white & green vinyl.
Harvey Milk-Life...The Best Game in Town, 2x purple & white swirl vinyl.
The Flaming Lips-At War With the Mystics, 2x orange & blue vinyl.
Nomeansno-Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed, 2x lemon yellow transparent vinyl.
Pointed Sticks-Perfect Youth, blue transparent vinyl.
Mount Eerie-Wind's Poem, 2x transparent vinyl.
Chrisma-Chinese Restaurant, pale orange vinyl.
The Unicorns-Who Will Cut Our Hair..., brown transparent vinyl.
In Göteborg the entire band sans moi was eaten alive by mosquitos and they still look like acne ridden teenagers many days later. No joke. How I escaped their fate is a mystery to this day.
Back in the van on our way to Bergen, Norge after spending a day off in Oslo. We visited the National Museum which houses the work of Edvard Munch and my new favourite painter Theodor Kittelsen, who Phil is enamoured with. I hadn't heard of him before but he is quite famous in Norge for his children's book illustrations of trolls and mythic monsters, (our host Silja admitted she was terrified of his illustrations when she was a child). Outside of Kittlesen I mostly liked the sculptures, particularly one of a mother breastfeeding a child (when we come back I have to remember to write down the name of the sculptor).
Afterwards Nick and I went window shopping at Henrik Vibskog and Freudian Kicks while the rest of the group ate sushi. We met up later and went to Ingeborg's flat and watched The Hangover which was fun but I'm getting kind of tired of movies featuring nagging, unreasonable harpy wives who seem to be written into the script solely to justify the male character's childish behaviour. It seems like lazy and unnecessarily sexist writing and tarnishes my appreciation of the humour of the film, which is actually pretty fucking funny mostly due to Zach Galifianakis, who comes off as this generation's John Belushi. I read a good interview with him in GQ not long ago and he came off facetious, irreverent and slightly irascible, which I can fully appreciate.
Due to a lack of space at Ingeborg's, Phil, Paul, Marissa and I stayed at her friend Silja's flat which was really fun. Silja's a furniture carpenter so we talked for a while about carpentry after I broke the bottom brace off of her dining room chair. Oops...
Köln was a good show at Subway. My friend Ann-Katrin showed up with her boyfriend Wolfgang who seems like a nice guy and she looked pretty happy with him. It was great to see her and I didn't even realize she was living in Köln much less in a relationship so I guess we've been out of touch for a while. Boo on me. I spent much of the evening talking with the bartender Claudine who was super sweet and funny which lightened my serious mood considerably. Why so serious? The thing about being on tour is it gives you lots of time to navel-gaze so I've found myself thinking about how when I was in my early thirties I was sure I was growing into a Harvey Keitel or Sean Connery type of handsomeness, you know, guys that were never particularly good looking but carried themselves well, but recently I'm not so sure I'm on that road or why it even matters.
Whatever. It's all weird confidence self-esteem baggage anyway.
When we arrived in Berlin I had just enough time after sound check to visit Pigi and Zoi. The short walk from the U-Bahn was happiness and when she answered the buzzer she was completely surprised to hear my voice and as I entered the flat she gave me a big hug and convinced me to stay for dinner. Zoi kept asking where Anders was and showed me her new favourite film The Sound of Music, which coincidentally we watched on the drive there. Eventually I had to leave and it was sad to say goodbye but it was worth it to keep in touch.
The show at Festsaal Kreuzberg was tops for me though I was oddly nervous due to the amount of friends who came out but I was soon assuaged by the people dancing in the front row, which always makes the show better. Afterwards I ditched the band to hang with Manfred so we grabbed a taxi and made a stop at my favourite kebab shop Mustapha's on Mehringdamm. Ummmmm hahnchen...a perfect end to a perfect day.
Beer bad, scotch good. I have found the key.Why does it take three soundpeople FIVE HOURS to soundcheck a band? There is a joke in there somewhere...Broke two sticks.Vera rules.
Unbelievable. As soon as we are back in Europe my computer recognizes internet again. Why? Please someone tell me why?The dinner at De Kreun in Kortrijk, Belgium was amazing. Three cooks working on tiny chickens the size of my fist in garlic, oil, lemon and salt. Roast potatoes in chives. Salad with smoked meat layers and a garlic chive dressing. Best food of the tour outside of Bernies homemade curry. Next door to the venue was a carnival which the gang went and checked out, Phil and Paul went on a ride called High Energy. A long stick with a carriage at either end. I'm told there was a lot of high girlish screaming...Oh, we also played a show. It was really good. We got drunk afterwards and went to the hotel which was also really good, the shower was in my top five of the tour. Everyone crowded into our hotel room and watched 30 Rock. Perfection.
Before we left for Europe I tiled my brothers shower stall and I realized today I find myself paying really close attention to the grout work in public toilets while urinating as there isn't really anything else to do and I urinate in a variety of public toilets on tour.With grout it can be flush with the edge of the tile and the consistency quite gritty, yet smooth and even, which looks best to me. More often it's shallow and smooth with scratchy streaks in it due to the aggressiveness of the cleanup, which is probably closer to what my grouting looks like. Also, more often than not the grout is left unsealed, leaving it porous and unprotected from mould and moisture.Clearly there's not enough time when I want it and waaaaay too much time on my hands in all the wrong places...
First off let me apologize for not posting any updates of this business we call show, it is certainly not for a lack of trying. For some unfathomable reason my computer wouldn't recognize any wireless signals in the U.K. and it was all I could do to keep from snapping like a turtle. I did however make some notes that I will try to string together into a somewhat cohesive understanding of the British experience.To get there we took a ninety minute ferry from Calais, France to Dover, England which was memorable if only for me essentially dumpster diving leftovers from the tables of strangers. It wasn't my intention to join the ranks of the poor unwashed but to be honest I hadn't had a shower that day and my pockets were indeed bereft of British pounds so I thought "Why the fuck not?" I found myself sitting next to a gaggle of teenagers who had barely touched their roast chicken and fries so when they made their leave I looked left, then right and discreetly moved the food over to my table. Psychologically it was difficult at first but like everything in my life once I commit then the consequences of actions don't enter my mind, hence being married...Our first show was Sheffield at the Harley. As it happens we were misinformed of the start time and since Julia and Marissa were still at dinner and the promoter was pressuring us to start, Nick played the show on his own with backing tracks from his iPod until the girls showed up and we joined him for the last two or three songs together. It was disappointing after such a long travel day to play for such a short time so to drown my sorrows I ended up going out to a pub called the Washington (co-owned by Nick Banks, the drummer of Pulp) with the promoter Liam and his girlfriend Emma. Much later, when I got back to the hotel (located above the Harley), there was a dj dance night in full swing and our room was bumping until about four in the morning. Despite this I was so tired I fell immediately asleep to the sounds of boots und katz und boots und katz...The next morning we went out to the van and discovered the word CUNTS scrawled in eyeliner on the back doors. I still can't figure out if it was someone who attended the show and felt inclined to express their feelings indirectly or a hooligan who's vision came into focus on the Deutschland license plate and inspired them to artistic heights in the field of calligraphy. We'll never know...Nice N' Sleazy, Glasgow. I'm not sure what to say about the name as it kind of speaks for itself. The show was good but the audience was really reserved and I was in an odd mood. I wished we had had some time to explore the city as it looks really beautiful. Marissa missed out as she went back to her friend Thibeaults to hang, but after the show the promoter Chris took us out to a cathedral which had been converted to a fancy bar and bought rounds of single malt and chasers. He seemed disappointed that we didn't want to get hammered and then go get in a fight. Oh Glasgow, g'wan g'wan g'wan.When we arrived in Manchester it occurred to me that we may be staying at Bernies place as last time and sure enough we were. Like Wally in Nürnberg, Bernie is a kind of den mother to musicians staying in Manchester and has a row house in Moss Side, which figures prominently as a locale in 24 Hour Party People as well as the title to Barry Adamsons debut album Moss Side Story. The show at the Ruby Lounge was really fun with lots of smiling faces in the audience and good live sound but I was most excited to hang out and drink wine and talk with Bernie, which I did until quite late. She's moving her family to Vancouver this September so I hope we'll get to know each other better as she and her family are fairly awesome.And then there's London. Heard of it? The city without a soul? Maybe it's harsh but I think London can take it, as well as dish it out. Like me. On the other hand the promoters Chris and Claire are basically the best people in the world and took good care of us so what do I have to complain about. The show was really good and the crowd seemed to enjoy it so what more do you want? You have a roof over your head and food in your mouth right? We stayed at the Travellers Inn and it was awful. The worst sleep all tour, but at least our toilet seat was attached and there were sheets on the bed, unlike Julia and Marissas room...Right. So. The Freebutt in Brighton. The best show of the U.K.? Perhaps. Certainly a lovely and lively bunch who loved the shit out of both No Kids and Mount Eerie. A fellow named Rowan started the show off with some extreme English backwoods folk music...in a black velvet cape... Good sets from No Kids and Mount Eerie and then back to the cursed Travellers Inn where we managed to take apart the couch to make room for Phil, but once again the girls were left with the dregs as their room smelled like vomit. Fortunately, Phil stepped in to have their room switched, so basically I'm saying that the Travellers Inn sucks and avoid it if you are able.
The next day we caught the ferry back to France and were free of the U.K.
Amen.
